SENSITIVE readers may now wish to turn to Page 37. A friend, just back from a European trip that included Luxembourg, has given me a photograph of a vending machine, showing the silhouette of a dog and the words "Halt ar stad propper."
1 don't know what that means but I do know — thanks to my cosmopolitan colleague — that the machine, for a mere 10 francs, will issue you with some sort of hag, the purpose of which is to contain anything your illiterate dog might drop on the pavement. I have no idea if a little shovel is provided or not!
This piece of vital information I pass on because it reminds me of one of my favourite stories which may well mean that you have to turn to Page 39. A clearly exhausted man staggers into a bar and gasps for a drink to revive him.
By the time he's starting his third measure and, since there
are no other customers, the kindly barman enquires as to how he has reached this state of exhaustion. The young man explains that he works for a circus and his job, when they parade through the streets of the towns and villages they visit, is to walk behind the elephant with bucket and spade so that no offence will be caused.
This day, he explained, something had gone wrong with the elephant's diet!
"How much do you get for this job?" asked the sympathetic barman.
"Ten dollars a week" said the American youth, for it was, of course, in America this story happened, "and my board."
"Ten dollars a week and board!" said the incredulous man behind the bar. "Why don't you leave? You could get more than that on Relief."
The young man went pale. "What? And quit Show Business!"